POSTING #113

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The Arab Spring

Recently, a friend who knew I had done some consulting work in the Middle East asked what I thought of the demonstrations taking place across the region.

"They're wonderful!", I replied.

I told him it had been very frustrating watching bright, well-educated young people coming out of universities and colleges with little hope of decent jobs.

As a result of the generosity of the US, Europe, Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries, most Arab nations were able to train professors and teachers and build colleges and universities.

But the creation of modern educational systems had not been matched by comparable changes in the political and business institutions.

Young graduates were not free to express themselves, to be creative, or to apply what they had learned.

And corruption and favouritism meant that whatever jobs existed were filled by the children of the rich and powerful.

I was upset that western aid was being wasted, and frightened that the frustrated young would feel that the only recourse was to join a terrorist group like Al Qaeda.

And the danger was real.

Early in my experience in the Middle East a man asked me if I could keep an eye on a relative who was studying in Canada. I thought at first that the man was worried about whether the young man  could cope with life (and the climate!) in Canada and keep his grades up. Pat and I had dinner with the student and it soon became clear that he was coping very well at his college.

When I reported this to the man in Jordan,  it turned out that his real concern was that the young man might fall under the sway of terrorist recruiters working among Arab youths in North America.

(I don't think the relative had to worry about that particular young man. He is probably working on his second or third million.)

Now that the political structures in many Middle Eastern countries are being reformed there will be a new openness in business.

I concluded by telling the friend who had asked what I thought of the Arab Spring that I was sure that the results would be messy as hell, in the short and medium term.

But democracy with all its bickering is a pretty hardy plant, well adapted to today's social, economic, cultural and technological changes---changes that will only accelerate in the years to come.

I remember feeling depressed thirty or so years ago when reading studies about South Africa. It seemed as though the whites would  never surrender their control and would even use their nuclear arms (remember they did have nuclear weapons!).

And the Africans would never give up their fight for freedom.

I could only see a calamitous blood bath.

I certainly never thought I would live to see the day when South Africa, controlled by Africans, would host one of the most successful World Cups ever.

Let's all welcome the Arab Spring!

We can continue to offer help and assistance but let's back off a little and let the Arabs find their own way to their own kind of democracy.

The Kingdom of Jordan and the Arab Spring

Jordan has had its own Arab Spring demonstrations but nothing comparable to those in other Middle Eastern nations.

I saw an article by one pundit who argued that this was because Jordan was a monarchy, and was therefore inherently more stable than the Middle Eastern nations that were controlled by family dynasties.

That seemed to me to be a pretty superficial analysis.

I think that a good part of the explanation is found in how the Jordanian monarchs have conducted themselves.

To illustrate that point, here are four stories I picked up while working in Jordan.

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A Palestinian friend in Jordan told me about how he and his young family were suddenly expelled along with several hundred thousand other Palestinians from Kuwait in 1991 after the Gulf War.

Angered at Yasser Arafat's support for the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein, the newly restored Kuwaiti government gave all Palestinians one week to leave Kuwait.

My friend had been living in Kuwait for years, and had a good job with an oil company.

Having no choice, he loaded up his car with his wife and children and whatever belongings they could fit into the vehicle and headed to Jordan.

Despite being a poor country, Jordan accepted a huge influx of Palestinians. My friend was grateful that Jordan had taken them in but he and his uprooted family faced great hardships as their new country struggled to absorb them.

He said he would never forget King Hussein's response to the education of the displaced children. The King told his Prime Minister that places had to be found in schools for all the children.

School authorities protested they didn't have enough teachers, desks or space for the newcomers.

The King told them to fit the children in.

My friend said that children sat on the floor, stood against the walls, studied in the school yards but they all got an education.

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Another friend told me about King Hussein's respect for others. The King was to attend a school  ceremony at which one of his children would graduate. The King arrived early and sat in the audience, chatting with other parents. Some members of the Royal Family, intent on making a grand entrance, waited until the program was about to begin and then swept down the aisle.

That was not King Hussein's style.

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I heard this story from several people about King Abdullah when he took over after the death of his father, Hussein.

He used to dress in humble costumes and go out at night with a scarf covering part of his face. Apparently, he would stand in line in places where the poor sought to get service---for example in hospitals and bus stations---and he watched what happened.

The next morning he would tell his ministers what he had witnessed.

And about the changes they were going to make!

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This story happened while I was in Jordan in early 2001.

Leaving his palace one morning, King Abdullah stopped to chat with some men who were laying tiles. He found that the workmen were all from either Egypt or Syria, there were no Jordanians.

He called in his Minister of Labour and asked him to find out why, despite high unemployment, the contractor was not using any Jordanian workers.

When he was told that Jordanian workers didn't have the required skills, he asked that a training program be set up immediately. When the Minister said that his budget wouldn't allow for that, the King provided $5 million of his own money to fund the program.

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As the demonstrations in Jordan show, there are problems that the country must address. Accommodation and food are expensive. Jobs are scarce. There are allegations of governmental corruption. The political system has to be more transparent and responsible.

But I sense that there is an underlying feeling that the King is sincere in his efforts to correct the problems.

Ending on a Lighter Note

I enjoy bumper stickers and signs.

Here are two examples that were new to me.

A car hitched to a large Recreational Vehicle had a sign in its back window: "I go where I'm towed".

A sign appeared overnight on a neighbour's lawn: "House for Sale by Owner---Wife Included". When I stopped by to chat, it turned out that friends of the owner had put up the sign to 'celebrate' his 60th birthday. His wife was not amused

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See you on May 8th for Posting #114 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.